The First Injection

Today I injected a dog! Sub-q vaccine in the scruff of the neck, she was under for surgery anyhow, so no wiggling. She got spayed. I watched her vitals with the tech, who taught me how to see pulse in their gums, pull their tongues forward a bit, tie their paws to the table, push anesthetic at doc's discretion, check for blink reflex and watch their breathing- every 5-6 seconds is normal (10-12 breaths/minute) watching their chest can be deceiving, i like to put my eyelid right by their nose, then i can feel the breath coming out. it's sometimes too light to feel with a hand. The dog also twitched a bit during the more painful parts of surgery, i guess this is a subconscious reaction to a pain stimuli- very interesting and creepy. I was around a lot of needles, but I did fine! I didn't look at any of the surgery part, but I could see a little stitching going on and a lot of blood on the doc's gloves. Also learned how to clean up around the incision site after surgery. Spray lightly with hydrogen peroxide, rub with finger lightly, blot very gently- you don't want to pull on the incision at all. Then, doc showed me the vaccine, and gave the tech a needle to draw blood for a heartworm test. I held the leg for her! and didn't get dizzy at all! I was totally focused on the task. I so far have issues with the falling asleep part, after they give the animal the sleep injection in the butt, watching her get sleepy is really unnerving for me. I have to wander around and do something else while the animal goes down for "a surgery nap". I like to call it a "surgery nap" because saying "put animal to sleep" has other connotations.

I also learned how to set up post-surgery cages, pack surgery packs and glove packs and drapes for autoclaves.

And, I held a dog all by myself while doc did an exam and a jug draw( a jugular vein blood draw)- had to learn how to keep my fingers out of the way on that one! I picked out the right size muzzle and everything. It was extremely cool.

Two HUGE dogs came intoday, St. Bernards. THEY are kind of scary to have on treatment table, since they could EAT YOUR FACE. One was 140 lbs, one was 163 lbs. AH! bigger than me! and strong! It takes lots of people to hold them. And, oddly enough, they get just as scared as little dogs. Good thing they don't realize they could EAT YOUR FACE!

And oh!

A dog came in with a bite wound, he protected his 5 year old owner from getting attacked by two roaming dogs. Really cool story. I held the dog's head while the doc poked surgical scissors all the way into his puncture wound and then squirted alcohol in it- that must have stung bad. The dog was literally shaking in fear. I talked to him very softly and slowly and stroked him very gently. I think this calms them more than patting on their heads. Like every other dog, though, all was forgiven once he was off the exam table. Obviously he had a muzzle on. Again, I like my face UNEATEN.

Then a pitbull came in with something wrong on his foot. Doc thinks it's a tumor, but owner-lady thinks that the dog stepped on something and it is embedded in his foot. Doc put a big, airy bandage on it. He makes lots of bandages out of large hunks of pure cotton. He seems to like to use that a lot. He also uses it to make his own q-tips on scissors, which get way more wax out than traditional q-tips.

So far not a lot of cats have come through while i'm there. Lots more dogs so far.

I can't wait to start the horse stuff.